Oracle Portal provides many item-related features which support document collaboration among different users and groups. The main item features include the following:

Versioning - When item versioning is enabled, previous versions of an item are retained instead of being overwritten when the item is edited. This means that you can have a record of all the changes made to an item and can revert to a previous version if necessary. See Section 14.12, "Using Item Version Control."

Item level security - Item level security enables you to choose the specific users or groups that are able to manage the item. See Section 17.9, "Securing Items."

Document control - With document control, groups of users can edit items using a check in and check out process. This feature restricts a user from editing the item while it is being edited or checked out by another user. See Section 14.5, "Checking Items Out and In."

2.6.1 Adding Content

Oracle Portal makes it easy to work with items on pages, once the appropriate privileges are established. You can use step-by-step wizards to add, edit, and delete items from your pages, or, if you have a WebDAV client such as Web Folders available, you can seamlessly drag and drop files and folders back and forth between your desktop and Oracle Portal pages. See Chapter 14, "Working with Items."

2.6.1.1 Adding Items with a Wizard

To find out how to use step-by-step wizards to add content to Oracle Portal, see Section 14.2, "Adding Items to a Page." A file is a type of item; so is a block of HTML code, a link to another page, a zip file, and so on.

2.6.1.2 Adding Items from Your Desktop

Oracle Portal supports the use of a Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol (WebDAV). Using WebDAV clients, such as Oracle Drive or Web Folders, you can seamlessly drag and drop content, files, and folders back and forth between the desktop and Oracle Portal. You can also perform in-place opening, editing, and saving of file-type items using desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office and Macromedia Dreamweaver.

2.6.2 Performing Actions on Items

Once you have added content to Oracle Portal, the items are easy to manage and maintain. You can copy, move, rearrange, and delete items, restore deleted items, or hide items.

You can also set attributes for your items. For example, it is important to classify the content of items as this will help other users to find your content and allow them to determine whether items are of interest. You can also control when people see an item by specifying its publish date, or you can set expiration dates for items so they are hidden when they are no longer relevant or important. For more information on the actions you can perform on items, see Chapter 14, "Working with Items" and Chapter 15, "Working with Portlets."

Scripting on this page enhances content navigation, but does not change the content in any way.